What happens when artists turn research, ideas and experiences into something you can see and experience? That question sits at the heart of Relational Trans_Positions, the 2026 Fada Creative Research Platform, bringing together 11 artists, academics and artists in residence at the Fada Gallery in Johannesburg.
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Curated by Dr Farieda Nazier, the exhibition explores how knowledge, meaning and experience can change through encounters, memories, materials and exchanges. It opens on 10 September and runs until 9 October at the Fada Gallery on the University of Johannesburg's Bunting Road Campus.
More than just an exhibition
Relational Trans_Positions sits somewhere between creative practice and research, bringing together artists working across different fields and disciplines.
Rather than presenting research as a collection of fixed answers, the exhibition looks at how ideas can evolve through interaction. The works explore the spaces between self and other, past and present, and the physical and intangible.
According to Nazier, the exhibition is interested in research that can be experienced through visual, material and experiential forms.
“Instead of offering fixed conclusions, the works celebrate transformation, demonstrating how meaning evolves through interaction and connection,” she says.
The result is an exhibition that encourages visitors to engage with the works rather than simply consume them. Meaning, in this context, isn't necessarily something decided before the audience walks through the gallery. It can shift depending on what people bring to the encounter.
Eleven artists, countless perspectives
The exhibition features work by Christa van Zyl, Gavin Krastin, John Shirley, Leon Krige, Leora Farber, Martin Bolton, Neil Lowe, Oupa Sibeko, Tobias Barnard, Xylan de Jager and Zinhle Zulu.
Their practices span a range of approaches and media, with the works engaging with themes including abstraction, embodiment, ecological relationships, technology and material transformation.
One of the central ideas running through the exhibition is the concept of “transposition”. Here, it isn't simply about moving something from one place or state to another. Instead, it becomes a way of thinking about change itself.
Ideas, memories, materials and experiences can take on new meanings when they move between different contexts.
That makes the exhibition particularly interested in the spaces in between: where boundaries become less defined, different perspectives meet and something new can emerge.
Research doesn't have to stay in a textbook
For audiences, this approach offers a different way of thinking about what research can look like.
Rather than separating academic inquiry from creative expression, Relational Trans_Positions places the two alongside one another. The exhibition reflects the broader ethos of the University of Johannesburg, where experiential learning and societal impact form part of its approach to education and engagement.
The gallery becomes a space for questioning, conversation and discovery, with visitors invited to consider how their own understanding of the world is shaped through relationships and encounters.
There's plenty happening beyond the gallery walls
The exhibition will also be accompanied by a public programme designed to bring the ideas behind Relational Trans_Positions to a wider audience.
Young creatives can get involved in the Fada4Kids Youth Activation on 12 September from 11am to 3pm. The programme will give young artists the opportunity to experiment with their creativity through hands-on activities.
On 23 September, from 5pm to 6.30pm, the gallery will host a Curatorial Panel Discussion, offering audiences an opportunity to dig deeper into the themes explored in the exhibition.
An artist-led walkabout will take place on 3 October from 11am to 1pm, giving visitors the chance to experience the exhibition alongside one of its creators and gain further insight into the work on display.
A space for ideas to keep moving
At its core, Relational Trans_Positions asks audiences to think about knowledge as something that is constantly changing.
The exhibition suggests that understanding isn't created in isolation. It develops through conversations, experiences, movement and connections between people, places and ideas.
And perhaps that's what makes creative research so interesting. The answers don't necessarily have to be waiting for you on the gallery wall. Sometimes, the point is simply to walk in, look around and leave seeing something differently.
